saving grace
by Zierrana
Summary: WW3 is raging throughout the continent and Feliciano is sent behind enemy lines. Lovino on the other hand is crestfallen at a mysterious blonde's appearance. Not Itacest, T for Lovi and that blonde is not an OC. Read, it is a fail summary as always


NEW STORY. It is not Itacest (even if I love it) and why it isn't, will be explained later in the story. Enjoy this story!

Fuck it, Italy Romano had known this would be a bad day as he lifted the girl in bridal style, damn she was heavy. It had started with girls being all 'Oh Feli, can't you do this' and 'Feli, can't you do that?' and to top it off, later their boss had just ignored him and just went to Feli for advice. Feliciano, of all people. No offence to his little brother but he didn't have much in his head except of food and girls. If this continues, Italy will collapse, after all what good advices can his idiot little brother give? He most likely said something about the best way to boil his fucking pasta, which was by the way wrong. The south italian way of boiling it was so much better, everyone he asked had agreed. Che, it didn't matter that they all were from the southern part of the country, they still count. CHIGI! They do, enough said. He sighed and asked Marco for help, knowing the man would help him move her to his car.

-o-o-o-

Lovino Vargas kicked a small rock as he was walking along the shores of Calabria, he didn't have anything better to do after all. That bastard for a boss had pretty much said, if you got so much to do, try to get the mafia to stop disturbing the locals in his area. HA! They might listen to him, but as a war was raging throughout Europe, they were the best kind of spies that Lovi had. If they saw ANYONE that they didn't recognise, they always told him so he could take measurements depending on who they were and where they were also reported about rebel groups connected to the movements that had caused the war in the rest of Europe. If his boss knew how many of their prisoners from France and Spain that was actually found by the 'useless Italy Romano' and his mafia then he'd get a heart attack, maybe Feli as well. Che, he never really knew how much his brother knew of what was going on in the country. All he actually knew his brother knew, was the war strategies and the foreign politics. He kicked another stone and he looked out on the Mediterranean sea. This was his home, and he swore that he would protect this land. He couldn't care less about the politics that went on in Rome nor about the rumours about an invasion from the spanish army. And he most definitely, don't you even dare to think otherwise, care about that stupid, smiling tomato bastard. And fuck no, his heart was NOT clenching at the thought of Toni being in the war front. He sighed slightly, knowing that for the moment , he could let himself think of that smiling idiot. (he had looked around the area to see if anyone were there to see he expressions he couldn't help showing while thinking of Toni)

After that stupid wine bastard had attacked that potato bastard's country (didn't matter that Ludwig had been missing for about 3 months prior the attack, there was always that other one, the albino dude hanging around his beloved Feli as well...Stupid german bastards, if this continues the german germs would infect his fratellino!) Ant-Um Spain had started to act weird. He had been snarling at everyone, even Lovi (but he did say he was sorry afterwards...Che, like Lovi eve cared what that idiot did) and he had been picking a lot of fights among his former colonies...No one had really been surprised when he had declared war against France. Che, maybe Francis hadn't expected one of his two best friends to attack him but eh, it is what he deserves after attacking the other best friend he have. Besides that, the war went on pretty violently and soon enough the spanish government declared war once again but this time, unprovoked. This time it was against the country of Italy. It didn't matter that Italy's borders against Austria and France was strained enough, now they had a war as well to take care of and soon enough all political ties with mentioned above were cut off. All that Lovi knew about Antonio, he had gotten to know from spaniards captured by the italian intelligence(A.K.A his mafia). Apparently he had used his ties to the royal family and the ties to the government to revive his old titles in the army. He had been pretty quickly posted in France and the troupes he was leading was advancing faster than compared to the other officer's. Rumour had it that he has gotten a mistress as a war trophy but that she broke up with him a few weeks ago. Anything more than these very few scraps of information was impossible of getting, as every connection to Spain had been cut off and to be honest, Lovi preferred that. Sicily had been severely attacked by the spanish navy and he could feel the hatred against the country of Spain running through his veins once again. Just like when he was under his rule...

A sudden cry from a seagull awoke him from his thoughts and he found himself standing on the edge of a few cliffs and the with the sun setting against the blue sky, the sea moving as one unit and the far away silhouettes of fishing boats, he could feel his heart almost burst with the pride he felt over his half of the european boot. He had to sit down and just watch the scenery unfold with the cries of the seagull still going on. He watched as the the sky changed from azure blue to later turn into a rich purple and then become dark blue, how the fire that was created by the setting sun and the calm ocean. He couldn't grasps how people could say that Venezia is beautiful. Sure it is pretty but it is just a town built on a lie. Everyone knew that the city was sinking and you were lying to yourself if you believed that it would remain. While this...This is the raw kind of beauty that no one would ever take the time to see. It took bravery to go outside Rome and watch the countryside as it truly was. He had painted countless of sunsets at this spot, and many other places and he could always do it again. His brother never got to see them, as Lovi knew they lacked the expertise his fratello possessed. His brother was the master painter but that didn't mean that Lovino didn't know how to paint, in fact he was actually not bad at all. He wouldn't believe what Antonio said though, he was NOT better than his brother at painting. (In fact he was better than his brother at landscapes but he'd never admit or believe that. That is how deep his inferiority complex was.) But then again, he would have painted this sunset if he could've, but he had forgotten the painting materials at home and who said he couldn't memorise this one?

He watched the sunset until the end and then he stood up, knowing that it was soon time for the meeting. It wasn't a coincidence he had chosen to go to this beach, it rarely was any coincidences with him at all to be honest and he had gone to this place for one reason only. He looked out at the dark sea and he saw a light appearing at the horizon, contrasting heavily against the surrounding darkness. The tiny ball of light was closing in fast and soon the soft buzzing from a quiet motorboat hit his eardrums. He didn't know, or care, what kind of boat it was as it was most likely one of the new types his brother was helping to invent. A random thought hit his mind: 'Feli sure loves his boats, then again Veneziano had been known for his trade in the Mediterranean sea during his childhood, and with all those boats in Venezia...No wonder that the biggest producer of new prototypes of boats came from Feliciano's Italy. He watched the boat get bigger as it drew nearer and he walked closer to the edge of the cliffs and as he jumped down from them, he saw the boat stop and was pretty much in front of the said cliffs.. The two people that was in the boat didn't even bother to leave the boat as they got close to the cliffs and dumped several file on the wet stone. Lovino frowned, the only reason they were so sloppy was because someone was following them, he had to move quickly if he wanted to be out of reach when whoever that was following his 'spies' reached the shore. He climbed up on the cliff once again and grabbed the files before they got soaked and he watched the motorboat start up again and how it speeded away before it got caught. He looked at the files that were dry and he smiled as he saw the name on the one he had looked at.

'Spanish movement on the continent:Studies of the latest two months of movement and battles in France'

That file was about the advances in an empty France and so on, exactly what Lovi needed. These files were pretty much taken from the spaniards themselves as this were files meant to be sent to the military headquarters in Madrid but had been 'lent' with the tiny help of some inside mafia. Lovino had gotten the habit of sending his Spanish speaking (meaning no accent that was noticeable) friends to the spanish army and they made sure to get their hands on special information of value for the italian government. He put them into a briefcase he had brought for this occasion and he smiled a little bit. Not the usual smirk that he used when he had some juicy information about someone or some nation that he could use to blackmail someone. Neither the creepy happy-go-lucky smiles his brother or Antonio used, which was fake by the way. It was, what Tonio would call, a genuine smile. He was really happy to have these files, as they would provide him information he was denied by his own government. A couple of years ago, when the war had started to get REAL ugly, Lovi had gotten the notification that he was assigned to take care of the internal struggles in Italy, not anything to do with the actual war. No one asked him about strategies or gave him anything about what was even going on on the continent. No, instead he was forced to work with the groups that wanted the same of internal catastrophe that was in France, Spain and god knows what other countries that had been 'infected' by this 'plague'. Needless to say, Lovino had not taken the news very good.

-o-o-o-

"Che cazzo stai dicendo?" The shrill voice of the south italian was heard throughout the villa they both shared, causing not just Feli to cover his ears, but also the staff to drop plates and cut things they were not supposed to cut, like fingers.

"Ve~ Fratello, calm down, it wasn't my decision to make anyway, our boss decided this." Fuck no, everyone knew that Feli had that old man around his little finger. 'That Feli must know something I don't and he wants me to not get involved, eh? Well he can't keep track of what I am doing when he is too busy keeping track of the war.'

"Vaffanculo. I couldn't care less what's going on in the rest of Europe anyway, okay? No me interesso un cazzo what's going on there." Feli watched Lovi as he stomped out, knowing that it was for the better. He had gotten alarming news and knowing fratello...Feli sighed. He loved his fratello maggiore but ve~ Somethings were better if he didn't know. Like those torture cells that Feli supervised...Or those lovely tricks to get people to talk that he had learnt from Ludwig during World war 2~ Maybe he should go and get some pasta, talking with Lovi could be so tiring.

-o-o-o-

Lovi was walking with the briefcase filled with files following the same path he had walked there, including the walk on the beach, when he started thinking about something weird. 'Feli's been acting strange lately. Talking with some weird guys from Venice (he heard that from their weird accent, he'd never understand his fratellino's creepy venetian accent) and the smile that Feli had been wearing lately was sadly enough familiar. Not the usually happy one, but the cruel one that he hadn't seen since world war 2. He didn't hesitate while having that smile, not to kill nor torture. After all, his brother had smiled that smile until perfection during his years as assassin. Vhe, he bet that most people would never been able to picture little Feli with the smile could be a feared assassin, they should really read some venetian history. Lovino sighed as he took a turn to the right, a big rock had appeared and he walked around it. Something gold transferred his attention from the path he had been walking to the water and he saw a body lying there. It was strange, as it was late in Autumn and no one would swim now, even if this was southern Italy, there was war going on after all and the spaniards made raids along the italian shores sometimes. He started to frown and he squinted with his eyes a bit and his frown deepened. The body was shaped like a woman and he decided to walk closer to her. He was hesitating though, it wasn't exactly like a woman chose to lie on the beach and half of her body was being caressed by the water. Or at least it looked like that as the waves rolled in along her body. He finally reached her and he kneeled to see her better, as it had gotten pretty dark.

He watched her shoulder length, blonde, wet hair covering her face, making it impossible to say who she was or where she was from. Che, but thankfully he could exclude some countries as this was a natural blonde colour and not dyed (don't ask how he knows the difference, just don't. It is safer for you that way). Her jeans and darkly coloured anorak was soaked as well but she couldn't have been here for long, she hadn't been here as he had walked this same path about three hours ago. He saw her fair complexion and he wondered if she was german, as his gut was whispering 'german germs', but her numerous cuts all over the parts of her body that was visible to his eyes made it hard to decide what shade her skin had. He watched her move a bit in her unconsciousness and he, without thinking, removed some hair from her face and gasped. He saw a beautifully shaped face and he saw she must be an extraordinary beauty when...He looked closer at the wounds covering her face and he flinched a bit. There were two long slashes across her face, creating a cross shaped wound as they were crossing each other, and several smaller injuries, causing her face to have quite some blood on her face, smeared out with water and sand. Her face was the beauty underneath a horrible, surrealistic painting and Lovino stood crestfallen as he watched her. He didn't want to leave her here but she could be a spy and it would be dangerous to take her home to his house here in Calabria. What if she found out who he was? Even if that would happen, it wasn't as bad as if she found the papers in his briefcase...That is, of course, if she is a spy. If she wasn't and he left her here, she might die, judging from some of the wounds (and she was beautiful, god knows what a drunk brute would do if he saw her) and he didn't want to have this beautiful girl's death on his shoulders. He already had so much else on them anyways.

He looked down on her, waging on the two options he had. He could leave her here to meet whatever destiny that had forced her to be on this beach or he could take her home, fix her wounds and then let her go. Before anything could go wrong of course...Yeah that sounded like a plan that made sense. He looked down at her a second time and sighed, she didn't exactly look light...She had some pretty impressive breasts and she wasn't exactly little herself. He estimated her to be around 169 in height. He looked around, hoping he'd see a car or some farmer that could help him with her but saw none. He sighed again and called for one of his friends and soon he arrived with his car.

"Marco, help me with this girl, will ya?" Lovino grunted as he started to lift the woman or girl or whatever she was and he was surprised over two facts. She was lighter than she looked like and the tattoo he found on her back, displayed as the anorak moved when he lifted her. It was shaped like a red diamond and he could see the outlining of another diamond a little further away. He furrowed his eyebrows together as he tried to remember where he had seen that kind of marking before, it could give a clue where this girl came from, but it was useless. His thoughts didn't wanna go further than that she had a nicely shaped body and that didn't help him much as he lifted her up. Fuck it, he definitely had known this was a bad day, but nevertheless he relaxed his face, letting his frown go.

"Huh, so she wasn't wearing anything except of a bra under the anorak, interessante. What a pretty blondie you've found Mr. Vargas, she has a lovely body" the man called Marco said as he saw her tattoo as well. He whistled quietly when he saw Lovino's reaction. It was clearly that the young man (appearance wise) was pissed at his comment and sure the boy/man was easily to make angry, but Marco had done his best to say something that shouldn't make his boss angry. Was it the comment about the girl that had made him angry? It seemed unlikely but...Judging from the scowl on his face that hadn't been present a few seconds ago, it was. He decided to test it as they carried the girl to his car. "Mr. Vargas, is this woman perhaps your comare?" he said with a teasing tone on his voice. He looked at his boss as his turned red (surprisingly alike a pomodoro but that was maybe the light) and started to stutter.

"She...She is no such thing! Chigi, how can you even think the thought that someone like her would be a mistress of me? She is...She is..is" he seemed loss at words and Marco decided to help him a bit with the first word that came up in his head.

"She's beautiful?" Lovino Vargas, his boss, friend and in fact one of the people that had raised Marco Rossi, turned somehow even redder and his scowl deepened. As they had placed her in the back seat (Marco mentally flinched as he though of his new leather seats) he saw Vargas frown, almost as he was thinking at something deeply. Not an unusual look on him but the determination in his eyes was a bit worrying as he rarely showed that to other people. Last time he had seen that face on his boss was when he had decided to use his network to gain information about the war, a not necessarily bad idea but a very dangerous one. He looked at Vargas that was looking at the girl intensively and he saw a sight he never thought he'd see on his face. True sadness. Lovino breathed in and Marco listened carefully.

"She is, and never will be my lover. I am first of all the personified (southern half of ) Italy and no mortal shall go between that." the tone in the boy's voice was heartbreaking and Marco could feel his heart clench at the words, but he refused to give up.

"But a temporary mistress wouldn't be so bad, you know. She is very beautiful and you need to relax more, get some sex."

"She is not a whore if that is what you think" Lovino hissed. The woman in front of him was way too beautiful, too proud to be his mistress. He didn't have to be a genius to get that she wasn't the type to have temporary relationships with, something told him she'd swallow him alive if he even tried. He smiled a bit at that thought. "Listen to me here, Marco. This woman is a lady and is supposed to be treated like one. I expect all of you to treat her as a lady."

"What do you mean?" Marco stared at him, hoping it didn't mean what he thought it'd be. He couldn't mean..."Yes, she will stay at my villa, at least for a while. She needs to recuperate from these wounds." his tone warned Marco to say anything and they finally entered the car. The drive to Lovino's villa was in silence that Marco did not dare to break and Lovino didn't want it to.

-o-o-o-

"Mamma! I want to show you something!" a little boy with dark brown hair shouted in broken English. He was running along the beach with a devastating speed and the big smile on his face would even make the most bitter man happy again. He reached his target and he grabbed her skirt. The fabric was thick but very, obviously, expensive. It was green, not green as the eyes of his 'father' that was the same colour of the emeralds he had brought from his colonies but green as the leaves of birches in the spring that he had been showed when he visited his 'mother'. He pulled the skirt slightly, as to gain her attention and he got it. The blonde woman turned around and smiled. The smile, to Lovino at least, was the most beautiful he had ever seen. It reminded him of the smiles he had caught Spain give to Belgium when he thought no one saw, he wondered if the correct word in English was 'loving'. The woman kneeled down to have the same height as him and she looked him straight in the eyes. The same curious but at the same time also vary look in her eyes that she usually had around her husband, was seen in her eyes as she looked into his olive coloured ones.

"Look, I found this really pretty shell! I want you to have it, since you let me have that other very pretty shell you found." he was smiling widely as he handed her the big shell that caused so much commotion. It was white and slightly cracked but in her eyes it was beautiful, and she took it gently from the boy's hands and smiled.

"Thank you, sweetheart. It looks lovely" She put it slowly next to her and pulled the smaller boy into a tight hug. She was almost crying, she was that happy. Not because of the shell, she could live without it but because she had gotten to his heart. She loved the fact that he had been letting her staying at his land as long as it wasn't safe in Spain. Lovi had ben so cautious around her, she was getting worried if he'd ever accept her. But now, after 18 months of marriage to Antonio, the boy was finally accepting his 'stepmother'.

"Of course, I mean it was my cute little lovi that found it!" the sound of a certain spaniard made the blonde woman freeze and then she relaxed but not before Lovi caught her frown. It looked misplaced in her face and he didn't like her sad facial expression she had before she turned around, as if she suffered from heartbreak.

"Oi, isn't it Mr. I'm-too-busy-working-to-even-go-to-the-beach?" of course said in perfect and flawless Spanish. Lovi couldn't grasp how easy she had adapted to speak almost nothing but Spanish, but then again she had had a queen before Maria that was spanish, Caterina d'Aragona. Maybe she had learnt then how to speak in almost non-stop Spanish. But Lovi wasn't blind either, he could see her pained expression whenever she spoke Spain's language, as if she didn't want to be reminded that she belonged to him for as long as this union was in function. Lovi couldn't help wondering if that stupid bastard even knew how much she loved him but at the same time hated him. He knew that he noticed it himself, but that was just because he had spent so much time with Alice lately.

"Sorry, Alicia but I needed to sign some contracts with your brother about some cargo he stole from me." Antonio noticed her lovely green eyes shine slightly, as if she let herself hope for a second, until she killed the light on her own. He loved seeing her eyes sparkle with life, he hated how they had been lately. All dead and with no life at all, at least when he was around...He had seen her eyes when she thought she was alone with Lovi, Dios mio they were beautiful then. All filled with life, pride and happiness. He hated the fact that he couldn't let her meet Arturo, but with the strained relationship he already had with Arthur and Alicia, he didn't want to lose his precious wife, even if she hated him.

"I hope you said hi from me, as I am sure he quickly went back to England. Lousy bastard..." He heard her sad longing and he swore to himself that he'd let her follow him to the New world next time he would visit his colonies. He knew she missed the feeling of salt in the air, the wind in her hair and the feeling of being free, he missed it as well. He hated when he was stuck here in Europe, never the less south Italy, and had to work with paperwork and such. If he, as her, was denied the access to the sea, he'd go mad. And, knowing himself better than people thought, he wouldn't hesitate to get rid of the person that forced him off the seas, he was actually shocked she hadn't tried anything yet. But at the same time happy for that, he knew her true strength and if her following the contract between her queen and his king, that meant she had accepted the marriage between them. But back to the topic, she was obviously suffering from not being able to be on the sea. They were both made to travel and live at the wild sea, always would the scent of saltwater be in their noses. Sadly enough he couldn't let his Alice meet Arthur, she might not come back then and he intended to keep his beloved pirate...

"Spain, why do you frown so much? Did you think about the gold Mr. England stole?" Lovi watched how Spain flinched and stood up. He had sat down during his trip into his thoughts and he had unconsciously started to frown as he was thinking about losing her, and the thought of never seeing the sea again. The thought had the power to wipe away his forever present smile (the only things that could actually) and Lovi always noticed when Antonio frowned, since it happened so rarely. Lovi watched Spain's movements intensively and he didn't miss anything. Not the quick glance at Alice nor the longing in his eyes. For Southern Italy, that was all the proof he needed to make sure that those two would never leave each other, he didn't want to lose the best mamma he had ever had. The boy didn't notice how his usually olive green eyes turned a bit more green at the thought, nor the little smile in his face.

-o-o-o-

Lovino woke up sweaty and with a low 'no!'. He drew his shaky fingers through his hair as he thought of the memory of another time. He had completely forgotten the old days, with boss Spagna and Alice...When they had been a family. He hadn't been able to make them last together, had lasted longer than the union between the countries though. They had split up around the same time as the spanish armada raised the sails towards England. Last time the countries all had a meeting that didn't end up in a fight, Spain and England had ignored each other, as always. That had been the norm for as long as Lovino had been an independent country and was able to attend the world meetings. He sighed, lost in the memories of the time when those two had been happy.

A shrill sound, coming somewhere from his bathroom, woke him up from his thoughts and he, muttering swearwords, walked to his cellphone. He glared at the innocent phone and muttered something that was suspiciously alike 'fucking fratellino, it's 2 am'

"Diga?" His thoughts had made him automatically revert to Spanish and he frowned, knowing his brother wouldn't understand him if it continued. "Chigi, are you gonna talk at all or are you just after wasting my fucking sleep?" he said, harsher and with a sicilian accent. Che, couldn't be helped, he had been to stuck in his dreams and sicilian accent was the closest to Italian he could handle at the moment.

"Ve~ You had another dream of when you were under Tonio's rule~? Never mind that, I need you here in Rome today." His tone had gone from his usual sing-song voice to his more formal and serious voice. That voice made shivers go up and down his spine and made him wondering what the fuck had happen this time. "Che cazzo stai dicendo? Do I have to drive away now? It is 2 Am and I haven't slept anything!"

"Ve~ You need to be here soon"

'Click' Feli turned off the phone and Lovi stared at it in amazement. His baby brother had actually ordered him to be in Rome as soon as possible and Lovi knew he'd follow his orders. He sighed again, fuck he had sighed a lot the past 24 hours. If he stupid baby brother hand't been such a...He didn't even know what his brother was anymore. He seemed to have returned to his old fascist way and as Italy Romano, he found it terrifying. Well whatever, he needed to get moving if he wanted to be in Rome before the sun rose without using his sports car.

He walked to his garage (he had fallen asleep with his clothes on) and looked over the cars he had. There were several cars in there that would make the collector die of happiness but he chose something not so fancy. His red Fiat Mustang GT seemed perfect for the job and he climbed into it. He drove out of his garage, looked at one of his favourite houses and smiled a bit. If he could finish whatever Feli wanted, he could come back and maybe talk with that mysterious blonde. He speeded up and he just left a cloud of road dust where the car had stood. When the dust had calmed down, there was nothing left and you'd never think someone had driven away just minutes ago.

Okay, some explanations:

All the italian stuff, you can look it up since that is what I did =P But seriously, I am too lazy to type it down. I've slept shit and I need to write an essay now

This mysterious blonde...You should be able to figure it out! If you can before I reveal her name, I will give you a prize fic~ Maybe..

SO yeah, this story is set in WW3 and this is about 20 years from this year. I'll upload a timeline in what happened and some other stories around this war. There will be one about how the war got spread to the Americas, one about what happened in Germany after Ludwig disappeared and so on. All this stories will create a whole picture and I might finish with a one-shot that tells what happened after the war ended and the first world meeting after that. MIGHT.

I don't own anything, except this version of WW3. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, this was most likely the longest of them all~

Oh yeah, sorry for sounding like everyone else, but I need to get some reviews on the story and my writing. I don't care if they are flames or not, I need to improve my language, don't spare me just because it is not my first language.


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